The ringing in her ears dissipated in several agonizing seconds; shocked, she looked around, trying to recognize her surroundings. It was a world of sand, a world of sounds, a world of total and utter chaos, filled with massive silhouettes and titanic appendages. She was standing on a sand dune, and in front of her was a colossus.

No, several. And all of them were looking at her from far, far above. Smiles were on their lips, glints were in their eyes.

The same men. The same guy. A giant.

Katya’s jaw dropped at the realization, as she stared back up at them from the ground. How tiny must she have been? An inch? Less?

Just then, one by one, they stopped looking at her and returned to whatever it was they were talking about. But as Katya still stood there, shocked, she watched the bronze-skin titan lift his hairy leg.

“No”, she whispered, “no, no, no!” She wanted it to stop, but she couldn’t, she could only watch in horror as the leg went up in the air, revealing a wide, meaty, sandy sole of his foot.

“No!”, Katya shrieked as her fight or flight response kicked in and she turned around to run. At this size, the sand around her was supporting her weight unusually well; it was like running on coarse gravel. But this didn’t matter. She ran, and then she noticed a shadow over her, so against her better judgement she allowed herself a look back and above - and there it was, a foot looming overhead, dark against the sun high up in the sky. His sole was coming down, relentless, perhaps even hungry, and bits of sand were raining from it, some hitting her on her shoulders and head.

“Please!” she whimpered then, falling to her knees and staring up. “Please…”

But he wasn’t looking anymore, and then she wasn’t seeing his face altogether, there was only her and the shadow of his sole over her. It was growing larger. She lifted her arms, as if trying to stop it. Repel it somehow. But the foot fell, and it crushed her resistance, immediately pushing her onto her back. The world plunged into darkness as Katya found herself pinned under the ball of his foot. The bits sand stuck to his sole dug into her skin. A thin layer of perspiration immediately formed between her skin and his; she felt clammy and compressed. The foot simply rested on top of her for a moment, and Katya could do nothing but squirm, like some worm caught in the path of a higher being. Through the mass of flesh and bone on top of her, she could hear him laughing about something with his friends.

“Please”, she managed to whisper, and then, as if in a cruel response, the foot tensed up (she could hear something creaking) and pressed down, pushing the tiny woman into the ground. The sand gave way, but it felt rough and coarse on Katya’s skin as she was stomped deeper into its dry and hot embrace. She tried to scream, but her face was smothered under the man’s foot, its ball flattening her features; droplets of sweat made their way into her open mouth, mixing with blood from her busted lip. She could not breathe, could not speak, could not resist or move as the titanic man ground his foot on top of her. Like she was an insect. Like she was a discarded cigarette butt. It took one minor offence for him to decide she deserved being stomped into the sand. Echoes of his carefree laugh still reached the tiny woman as she silently wailed in her misery, humiliated and reduced to a bug.